The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1887-06-03
THE SOLDIER STATESMAN.
The Response Of Capt. Thos. n. Woods
to the Toast Of jefferson Davis,

w hio lcuipSsI ol phSSAOlldtt
recollection sweeps the memory
at the mention of the name
How every true heart beats ana
throbs in the remembrance of the
strength and glory which work
every part of the character and
career of this immortal man,
The briefest retrospect Of his life
unveils to our eyes the chiefest
resplendencies which brighten our
country's history for fifty years
past. His history and his coun-
try's history are so indissoIubly
interviewer as to make one har-
monious, perfect and indescriba-
bly, thrilling whole! His life
makes mighty part of the life Of
the Republic.
"Soldier, statesman; defender
of the rights OF the Southern
States" The sentiment itself
epiromizes, in the terses phrase.
his highest eulogium, and stirs
the blood like the blast of a
trumpet. From the day when he
began the hard life of young
soldier on the plains, now half a
century ago, to thai awful crown
ing period. wheu,a ,amid the appall-
ing roar Of civil war, he stood
serene, lofty, unbending, the
chosen chief Of struggling milIinns
what a stupendous record
What life, beginning in trying
reality on foreign soil when with
his Mississippians he plucled vic
tory for the American army from
the jaws of defeat and wrote his
name in imperishable letters in
the military annals of his country,
onward through the Senate iu its
palmiest day, onward through
the cabinet council chamber. and
upward 10 the supreme rulership
millions Of freemen in a crisis
never to be repeated nor parallel
ed. If this were all, surely. sure
ly it were more than enough 60
fill the widest dream of h c
proudiest ambition. But. ineffa-
bly, glorious as is the career in
action thus swiftly glanced upon,
the life of slow martyrdom began
at Fortress Monroe, with all the
attendant paDgs and terrors and
agonies Of vlcarlous suffering. and
only now, at length, emerging
uneclipsed through all the storms
of calumny and hate that beat
upon his naked head-a life whose
fortltude, whose dignity, whose
patience and whose unquenchable
devotion to the truth and the right.
as he saw them, and as we saw
them-wlat, what shall be said ol
that pitifulIy painful and heroic
chapter of this life.
1t is enough, Mr.. Chairman; it
is enough, ladies and gentlemen; it
is enough, most illustrious and
venerable sir, that at last the
clouds have lifted, the mists have
melted into translucent air, the
shadows have disappeared, the
long night has ended, and the
radiant sunlight now falls all along
the way, and the hero stands out
colossal, ,transplendent. all-glorious
the object of admiration,
the idol Of his peoples hearts.
True to his convictions, It is
now demonstrably certain that his
people are true, have always been
true to him. Now and then the
pulling sentimentalIsm Of post.
prandial oratory, with face hall
ayerted from the traditions and
faith Of our fathers and with
apologetic tone in naming the
Confederacy and its leaders, civil
and military, stretches depreca-
tory hands northward and pratei
of a New South. But, thank
God, the only South the true mer
and women Of Mississippi know
is that fair South which a littl,
while ago lay PROSTATE. helpless
bleeding but which now lifted uE
by graciously concnrring provi
dences and put upon her feet once
more by faithful hands, Northerr
as well as Southern, again stretch
es her supple limbs as she enter
the arena and fixes her eye upor
the goal. New only is she in th,
return of emancipated strength
IN the spring of kindliag hope
and in the stir of awakening ac
tlyIty, but old in the blood, th,
traditions, the principles which
give life and impart character
These star-bespangled heavens
that stretch above US, outwardlJ
and yisibly seem not the same
wide arch which hung starIes'